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| {{JP Boyd on Family Law TOC}} This page offers my own plain-language definitions of common legal words and phrases. For more complete, more precise definitions you might want to have a look at ''Black's Law Dictionary'', an American reference book published by Thomson West, or at Barron's ''Canadian Law Dictionary''. Many public libraries will carry one or both of these dictionaries. The websites of the provincial [http://www.bclaws.ca/glossary.html Queen's Printer] and the [http://www.familylaw.lss.bc.ca/resources/definitions.php Legal Services Society] also feature helpful glossaries. | | {{JP Boyd on Family Law TOC}} This page offers my own plain-language definitions of common legal words and phrases. For more complete, more precise definitions you might want to have a look at ''Black's Law Dictionary'', an American reference book published by Thomson West, or at Barron's ''Canadian Law Dictionary''. Many public libraries will carry one or both of these dictionaries. The websites of the provincial [http://www.bclaws.ca/glossary.html Queen's Printer] and the [http://www.familylaw.lss.bc.ca/resources/definitions.php Legal Services Society] also feature helpful glossaries. |
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| ;''ab initio'':A Latin phrase meaning "from the beginning." A marriage that is unlawful is void ''ab initio'', as if it never happened.
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| ;abduction:The taking of a person by force or fraud. In family law, also the taking of a child contrary to a court order or without the permission of a guardian. In certain circumstances, this may be a criminal offence.
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| ;access:Under the ''Divorce Act'', the schedule of a parent's time with his or her children under an order or agreement. Access usually refers to the schedule of the parent with the least time with the child. See "custody."
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| ;account:In law, a lawyer's bill to his or her client or a statement of one person's recollection of events.
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| ;act:A law passed by a government, also called "legislation" or a "statute," or the intentional doing of a thing. See "regulations."
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| ;action:A court proceeding in which one party sues another for a specific remedy or relief, also called a "lawsuit" or a "case." An action for divorce, for example, is a court proceeding in which the claimant sues the respondent for the relief of a divorce order.
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| ;address for service:The address at which a party to a court proceeding agrees to accept delivery of legal documents. An address for service must be a proper street address within British Columbia; additional addresses for service may include postal addresses, fax numbers, and email addresses.
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| ;adjournment:The suspension of a hearing or trial, usually when the hearing or trial cannot proceed on the date scheduled or because it cannot complete within the time scheduled.
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| ;adoption:In family law, the act or process of taking another person's natural child as one's own. The child becomes the adopting parent's legal child as if the child were the adopting parent's natural child, while the natural parent loses all rights and obligations with respect to the child. See "natural parent."
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| ;''Adoption Act'':A provincial law dealing with the ability to adopt and the adoption process.
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| ;adoptive parent:A person who has formally assumed the status of parent to a child who is not his or her biological offspring. See "adoption" and "natural parent."
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| ;adultery:A married person's voluntary sexual intercourse with a person other than his or her spouse; cheating; playing the field; fishing out of season. Proof of adultery is grounds for an immediate divorce, providing that the other spouse has not consented to or forgiven the adulterous act. See "collusion," "condonation," and "divorce, grounds of."
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| ;advance:In family law, this usually refers to one party obtaining a share of the family property before the property has been finally divided by court order or the parties' agreement.
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| ;Advisory Guidelines:Short for the Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines, an academic paper released by the Department of Justice that describes a variety of mathematical formulas that can be applied to determine how much spousal support should be paid and how long spousal support should be paid for, once a spouse is found to be entitled to receive support. The Advisory Guidelines is not a law.
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| ;advocate:A lawyer; sometimes a person other than a lawyer who presents and argues a case in court on behalf of a party to the proceeding. To argue a contested position.
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| ;affidavit:A legal document in which a person provides evidence of certain facts and events in writing, as if the evidence was given orally in court. Affidavits must be notarized by a lawyer or notary public who takes the oath or affirmation of the person making the affidavit to confirm the truth of the affidavit. Affidavits are used as evidence, just as if the deponent, the person making the affidavit, had made the statements as a witness. See "deponent" and "witness."
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| ;affidavit of service:A legal document required by the rules of court in which a person who has personally served someone describes the circumstances in which the person was served. This may be essential to prove personal service, particularly if the serving party intends to seek a default judgment, as is usually the case in a desk order divorce. See "default judgment" and "personal service."
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| ;affirm:To promise that a statement is true. When someone "swears" to tell the truth, they are taking an oath on their faith in a god. Affirming is a substitute for taking an oath, and is most often employed where the person making the statement is an atheist or under a religious proscription from making oaths. See "affidavit," "oath," "perjury" and "witness."
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| ;age of majority:The age at which a child becomes a legal adult with the full capacity to act on their own, including the capacity to sue and be sued. In British Columbia, the age of majority is 19. The age of majority has nothing to do with being entitled to vote or buy alcohol, although federal and provincial laws sometimes link those privileges with the age at which one attains majority. See "disability" and "infant."
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| ;agent:In law, someone acting on behalf of someone else, with that person's express permission and normally at their express direction.
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| ;alias:A name by which people know you other than your legal name. Aliases are not illegal in British Columbia.
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| ;alienating:In family law, the actions or statements of one parent that tend to sever, damage, or harm a child's relationship with or affections for the other parent.
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| ;allegation:A claim that a certain set of facts is true, such as "on Monday, I had soup for lunch" or "Bob drives a blue Camaro." Also called an "allegation of fact" or a "statement of fact."
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| ;alternative:A phrase used to indicate secondary relief or a secondary ground of relief in a claim or application, usually presented as an option to the primary relief or primary ground of relief. See “motion,” “pleadings,” and “relief.”
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| ;alternative dispute resolution:A phrase referring to a family of processes intended to resolve disputes outside of the court system, including arbitration, mediation, negotiation, and collaborative settlement processes. In family law, the purpose of alternative dispute resolution is to offer a less adversarial and less expensive way to resolve a dispute than having to go to court and have a judge resolve things.
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| ;amend:To change or alter a pleading or document that has already been filed in court or given to the other party. The resulting document is a separate document from the original and is called, for example, the "amended Notice of Family Claim" or the "amended separation agreement".
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| ;''amicus curiae'':A Latin phrase meaning "friend of the court." Usually refers to a lawyer who does not act for any of the parties and assists or brings relevant information to the attention of the presiding judge.
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| ;annulment:A declaration by a judge that a marriage is invalid. The effect of such a declaration is to make it as if the marriage never occurred. See "ab initio", "declaration" and "marriage, validity of".
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| ;answer:A response to an allegation of fact or to a claim. Usually refers to documents which reply to the allegations or claims made by the other party, such as a "Response to Family Claim" or a "Reply".
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| ;appeal:An application to a higher court for a review of the correctness of a decision of a lower court. A decision of a judge of the Supreme Court of British Columbia can, for example, be appealed to the Court of Appeal for British Columbia.
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| ;appellant:The party who brings an appeal of a lower court's decision. See also "appeal" and "respondent".
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| ;applicant:A party who brings an application to the court for a specific remedy or relief. Usually refers to the party who has brought an interim application, but in the Provincial Court can mean the person who starts a court proceeding. See also "court proceeding", "application respondent" and "interim application".
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| ;application:A request to the court that it make an order for a specific remedy or relief usually on an interim or temporary basis, also called a "chambers application" or a "motion". See also "interim application" and "relief."
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| ;Application to Obtain an Order:A legal document required by the Provincial Court Family Rules to bring a court proceeding, which sets out the relief sought by the applicant against the person named as respondent. See "action", "applicant", "pleadings", "relief" and "respondent".
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| ;application respondent:A party against whom an interim application has been brought. See also "applicant" and "interim application".
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| ;Application Response:A legal document required by the Supreme Court Family Rules to reply to a Notice of Application, which sets out the relief agreed to and opposed by the application respondent and the facts in support of that position. See "interim application".
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| ;apportion:In family law, to divide equally, usually referring to the division of family property between spouses. See also "reapportion".
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| ;appraisal:A professional estimate of the worth of an asset. In family law, this is sometimes required for the court to fix the value of property such as an art collection or a house.
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| ;apprehend:In law, to take, to seize. In family law, this term usually refers to the taking of a child out of the care of his or her parents by the police or child welfare authorities.
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| ;arbitration: A dispute resolution process in which an arbitrator hears the evidence and arguments presented by the parties to a legal dispute and makes an award which resolves the dispute and which is binding on the parties. See "alternative dispute resolution" and "family law arbitrator".
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| ;argument:In law, persuasion by logical reasoning. Usually refers to oral or written argument presented to a judge following the presentation of evidence, or to a written brief of argument.
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| ;arrears:Child support or spousal support that is owing because of an order or agreement but is upaid.
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| ;assent:Agreement, approval.
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| ;assess:To determine the value or amount of something. A lawyer's bill may be ''assessed'' by a registrar to determine the actual amount the client should pay. See "appraisal".
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| ;assign:In law, to transfer an interest or right in something to someone else. People who go on welfare, for example, are required to assign their rights to apply for child support and spousal support to the provincial government.
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| ;attest:To swear or affirm something to be true, usually in the context of oral evidence or affidavit evidence.
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| |link = [http://www.familylaw.lss.bc.ca/resources/definitions.php family law terms]}}
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